2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 7

 Very sad news last week about Notorious, who seems to have touched many lives for the better, and was certainly a welcome member of earlier versions of this writing group.  I never really know what to say in thise sorts of cases, but I hope that the continuing companionship, support and kindness of this group is in some ways an honouring of the members we've lost and a remembering of this part of their lives.

If you're busy this week/when reading this, the weekly goals and prompts are right at the bottom after the list of last week's goals, just skip the earlier stuff! 

This week we get to do our mid-session review and update/amendment of goals as well as weekly goals - time passes whatever is going on.  Since that's what we need to do, perhaps this week we can talk about how we feel about revising and adjusting plans - is it easy, or even too easy to flex to fit in around the demands of the rest of the quadrants?  Or is there a lot of discomfort and self-judging associated with any change of plan?  Maybe changing plans happens, but doesn't get documented, so you have out of date plans still hanging around?  Any tips for effectively and positively adjusting plans?

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY 

Apart from all the usual sort of lightly settled countryside experiences, owls and biting bugs and the like, the shell of the cottage made a good camping spot and the group passed a quiet night.  The next morning you were able to make tea and toast the remains of the loaves for breakfast and still get underway just after sun-up.  There is a faint path to the woods through lightly grazed scrubland, which continues slightly uphill into the trees .  The path politely, tentatively picks its way around the bases of the trees, and the sharp-eyed Scout will see a couple of signs of humanoids having been active, but after a few minutes of walking the ground levels out, those signs disappear, and the path thins to a thread of an animal trail, branching occasionally. You keep walking into the woods, letting Linnet take the lead in when it's time to start searching for herbs.  The woods don't feel ominous - they are full of small life and dappled light, bugs and birds and the occasional squirrel scuttling out along a branch to see what's going on - but they also feel self-contained, as if there's not much place for or interest in visitors.

You come to a small stream, bright and clear, with slotted hoof prints and soft paw pads in the little beach where animals have been coming to drink or crossing the water, and Linnet will suggest that this is a good place to start looking for the herbs you seek.  From last week's comments, Martha and Cornelius said they'd be hunting for herbs, and I will assume Linnet is doing the same.  Scout was going to be looking around with a more wary and cautious eye, and I'll assume Alice is doing the same.  Dice roll time!

That's a 12 for Martha, a 4 for Cornelius and a 13 for Linnet.  Since Martha has some experience with herbs and herb-lore, and Linnet is a Druid, the two of you set about your task by looking for suitable habitats; Martha will find a small stand of Singing Nettles close to the stream and Linnet will spot some leaves of Perennewinkle on the branches of a very old, sprawling oak.  Cornelius has less relevant advantages and with a roll that low, is not having an easy time of it - elfin grace notwithstanding, he'll have snagged sleeves on brambles and slipped on wet stones and not actually spotted anything.  And a 1 for Alice and a 15 for Scout.  A 1 is the lowest possible number and usually signifies an "active failure" - Alice is trying to be watchful, but as she peers upwards to try and see the source of a sound, she gets a faceful of bark bits and is completely occupied with trying to blink her eyes clear and pick bark out of her hair.  Scout, however, sees a couple of tiny platforms in the trees around the stream, and will immediately spot two small bright winged figures dropping down towards you and a third one sitting an a branch giggling as Alice snorts a bit of bark out of her nose.  With a roll that strong, Scout recognises them as sprites - tiny fey who have a strong sense of justice and protect their forests, but who aren't innately hostile to humanoids and can be helpful when they feel like it.

What do your characters want to do now?

LAST WEEK'S GOALS:

DAISY

URGENT Submit revisions for Paper 2
Informal research article for fun web thing
More endless but important meetings
Not lose my temper with frustrating things
Real Summer 1: beer on deck, cannot cope with bigger goals

DAME ELEANOR HULL

- finish and send the MS review
- pack and do other trip prep
- swim once
- have fun and do no work during trip!

HEU MIHI

1. Round of revisions to ch. 5
2. Clean the garage
3. Contact Mom about estate lawyer; contact estate lawyer
4. (Maybe) start research for festschrift description
5. Make one phone call to finish my part of recycling pamphlet

JANEB

1. self-care: 75%+ of regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed, keep my mobile phone on grey-scale mode.
2. fun: play D&D, knit some, draw something (nibling's birthday card is necessary), read something
3. teaching and administration: three blocks of teaching preparation from my list, complete tasks related to students doing placement years, attend Second Formal Review meeting, comment on chapter draft and annual review paperwork for grad student
4. research: Slowly Developing Paper one hour, referee another paper, work through at least half of Consultancy Paper (which is now back on my desk, joy).

JULIE

1. Work on grant application
2. Review for PhD student.
3. Meet Susan!
4. Bathroom project.
5. Decluttering
6. Host late birthday/post exam party for daughter on Saturday.

SUSAN

1. Enjoy trip to nice city
2. Keep moving forward on Famous Author
3. Do some needed catch up on Big Collaboration
4. Deal with Admin stuff, hopefully before my sabbatical starts, officially next Monday.
5. Have fun

SESSION GOALS:

Daisy

• Two big accepted papers and one smaller paper revised and finalized
• One new paper submitted
• One abandoned paper revived and submitted
• One grant application submitted
• One student thesis finalized and defended
• All the field work
• Revise two lectures for next year every week
• Go kayaking and camping
• Have small local adventures with kid when field work and teenager camp schedule allows
• Exercise to survive August fieldwork and field teaching
• Gardening

Dame Eleanor Hull

- finish the Alms chapter that is still hanging around and send it to a friend for comments;
- plan all my classes for next year;
- do what I hope is a limited-scope manuscript-related project;
- start work on another book chapter;
- work regularly in my garden, taming various portions of it;
- regular exercise, yoga, and other self-care;
- at least two trips to see friends.
Alms really is almost done, I think, so I'm imagining devoting roughly a month to each of my other work projects, with gardening being an on-going effort. What do I most want to do this summer? Swim a lot. I think it would be very satisfying to get next year's classes all planned out, so that all I have to do is show up, teach, and grade, without having to plan while teaching. I always say I will do this, and never have really done it, so let's see if I can manage it this time around!

Heu mihi

1. Write an introduction for this book
2. *Really* finish the draft of chapter 6 (now chapter 5), revise chapters 3 and 4, start working on tightening up the whole very long manuscript
3. Read and review book by August 1, I think it was
4. Edited collection: Prepare and submit a proposal
5. Job-related: create info page for international students; line up workshop guests for TA practicum; prep new book(s) for fall course; fall syllabus; ORDER BOOKS for fall course
6. Grad students: I have one who is supposed to be finishing his dissertation, like, now. This student will take a lot of work. I must prepare for this.
7. Submit conference abstract IF I decide that I want to.
8. FUN: Make at least 3 books; finish knitting a cardigan; read a lot of novels; take forest days; finish France photo albums

JaneB

1) self-care: moving intentionally, eating mindfully, listening to my body and resting as needed, being kind to myself, caring for my home environment both through regularly doing the basic chores and through making improvements/doing one off tasks. it also includes the ongoing processes of healthcare and negotiating reasonable adjustments.  
2) fun: addressing most of the seven types of rest one does whilst awake, refilling my reserves and working out who I am as an neurodivergent late-50s person recovering from burnout, not just as an academic. 
a) knitted shawl and crocheted blanket - finish one and progress the other
b) writing – attend at least 75% of the creative writing course
c) D&D - play once a week if possible 
d) read at least as many books per month as last summer!
e) do something in at least two of the categories (handicrafts, drawing/painting, writing, reading, D&D) and at least one social thing every week
3) Teaching and administration - at least 3 teaching-related work blocks of time (half a day each) every work week of the summer (list has 30 blocks so far)
4) research. less organised at this point because I'm slowly feeling my way back into it. I'd like to have progressed several papers which are in different stages of unfinished, and to have outlined a grant application for a buy-out (i.e. to get writing time for me - not easy to get as a STEM person but I have an angle I can try).

Julie

1. Teaching/admin - for this session, that consists mostly of marking, plus PhD students. I am thinking of leaving teaching prep for the next session, aside from sending reading lists to the library, which has to be done by July.
2. Research
i) Finally submit the grant application!
ii) Present at a workshop in France in June
iii) Submit an abstract to a call for papers for a special issue of a journal. This is something I actually feel excited about, so am adding it even though it might be a distraction.
3 Kids
i) Steer daughter through GCSEs without either of us losing our minds and have fun with her afterwards.
ii) Try not to neglect son in the process! Plan things to do with him in August while daughter is away.
4. House/life admin
i) Start one big house project (new bathroom(s)). On the list of projects for a while, but forced upon me now by leaking shower.
ii) Garden work - plant pots, get shed built, new patio furniture.
iii) Some small to medium jobs e.g. decluttering, frame photos
5.Self-care
i) Keep reading pace up - I've read a lot more this year already
ii) Exercise regularly
iii) Work on healthy eating and sleep.
iv) Keep up with journaling.
v) Fun activities - see friends, do creative stuff.
The one goal for Summer Me is probably the grant application, which is about 80% there, mostly costings and fiddly bits. It would be a huge load off my shoulders.

Susan

Research:
1. Figure out how I will revise Famous Author to meet editor's suggestions. (They want a longer ms, so I have to figure out where and how to do that.) Do it.
2. Finish last little bits (for now) of Big Collaboration (Maybe will be done today, but I'd like to say it's done for now!)
3. Start work on "Rest of My Life" project, which will really get going when I get to My Favorite Library but I'd like to start now
ADMIN:
My Admin job lasts until July 1, and it's not clear who will take over then. So just keep up with it and share information as I get it.
LIFE:
--house organizing
--read for fun
--plan trips for the summer
--exercise/ sleep / eat well

IN SUMMARY:

Your TLQuest prompt is: You've spotted two of the herbs, and a pair of sprites are rapidly flying down to talk to you, with at least one more around - only Scout has noticed the sprites so far.  What will your character do?  You can search your memory for songs or stories or facts about sprites, talk to the sprites, offer them something, try and hide, or are they the kind of person to not notice that Alice just got a faceful of tree and Scout is interacting with visitors nearby, and to just get on with searching/collecting?

Your real-world TLQ prompt is: any discussion points on revising and adjusting plans, weekly goals, and checking in with session goals - does anything need adding, revising or deleting?

2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 6

If you're busy this week/when reading this, the weekly goals and prompts are right at the bottom after the list of last week's goals, just skip the earlier stuff! 

Midsummer already!  Days will be getting shorter from now on and our mid-session check in with our goals is next week (imagine me putting my fingers in my ears, closing my eyes and singing "lalala" really loudly to help me ignore all those things).  Last week we talked about small annoying tasks and keeping them in their place - this week let's have a chat about how we park work when we're done for day, to minimise how much it can overflow into the precious summer stuff!  A former version of this group introduced the "parking on a downhill slope" metaphor (I think that was coined by Notorious PhD?), which I continue to use and share as widely as I can.  Any other handy phrases, or specific tips on HOW you park your work so you can put it out of your mind, especially when working on longer tasks?

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY

Everyone feels reassured enough to take on Silas' errand, and when Scout has returned and Silas has woken up from his nap, you tell him so.  He looks very relieved, and sets to work making sure you have what you need.  Scout asked about the dog - the dog seems happy, dim and very much three legged.  Looking around the place, she'll also see that one of the cats has only one working eye, but seems just as cared for and cat-content as the others.

Silas will show Scout his own map of the local area (which is amateurish but legible) and point out the general location where he usually finds the herbs, and an abandoned cottage about an hour's walk from the woods which he says is a great place for an overnight camp as it has a well and an intact hearth for a fire and cooking, and the remaining walls provide some shelter if the night is chilly.  He'll write a short letter stating that the group are acting on his behalf, show the note to Alice so she can be sure it doesn't say "rob these imposters", then seal it and hand it over.  He'll give you a tiny carved wooden acorn on a silver chain, and tell the group that this will have the same message for anyone they encounter who doesn't read, or prefers symbols.  He'll also direct Linnet to the correct drawer in his workbench where she can find finely woven linen bags, collecting vials and a well made herb-cutting knife, and tells her that he trusts her to not collect too much of anything, but he'll happily pay for several bags of each plant.  And he says that you should have no trouble finding the plants, you clearly have the right skills among your group and anyway, there are some helpful small folk in the wood who will set you right if you have a problem.  As you get ready to leave, Silas' neighbour is just arriving to make sure the animals get fed, and she thanks you for helping out in the garden because "he will over do it, he worries about them plants as if they was babbies"

It's late afternoon by now - when you go back to the inn, your activities are clearly already known - Mistress Underwood, the neighbour, just general village observations, who knows?  The landlord says that your meal tonight is free as you're helping out Silas, and offers to pack up some basics for your trip to the woods as well.  Despite the suspicions of some members of the group, dunner is good and unadulterated, and you set out the next morning with a couple of loaves of fresh bread, a very solid slab of fruitcake, a bag of stored apples which are a bit shrivelled but still sweet-smelling, and a good hunk of bacon to add to whatever rations you carry or forage yourselves. 

You set off the next morning bright and early, your path taking you first through the village and its fields, then into the grazing lands where you pass a swineherd and a couple of outlying cottages, then into less managed country, mostly scrubby with some stands of woodland.  The path you're following is quite clear, with minimal need for Scout's skills to keep you on track, and the landscape feels safe with plenty of bird and insect activity, and Scout and Linnet will spot several signs of deer and rabbits and other small critters.  You make good time (everyone having two legs doubtless helps) and are able to make camp at the cottage and be comfortably settled in by dusk.  Some helpful previous traveller left kindling and firewood stacked, and there's even an old but usable earth toilet which someone has maintained enough that the seat is smooth and solid, there's a wooden shovel and a pile of dirt and ashes for use, and there's enough of a fence around it for privacy - camping luxury!  You can see Darkthorn Woods ahead of you, spreading up a slope and forming the horizon.  It doesn't look ominous, exactly, but it's very present in the landscape even though it's an hours walk away.

What is your character like as a companion on a walk like this (do they get distracted by butterflies, have a rigid sense of pace and schedule, sing or tell stories as they go)? How is your character feeling as they settle down, and what is their plan for tomorrow? 

LAST WEEK’S GOALS

DAISY

URGENT Submit revisions for Paper 2
Start on new paper and finish at least the data and intro sections
Endless meetings
Run three times, strength two times
Real Summer 1: try again for the fancy food truck lunch
Real Summer 2: go to a beach

DAME ELEANOR

1. Write report on MS I'm reviewing for a press
2. 1 unit Greek
3. Write or at least outline the intro and conclusion to Alms
4. Do something else worth reporting (ex. make an appointment, get a picture framed, tidy the linen closet)
5. Make some plans with friends for another upcoming trip.

HEU MIHI

1. Work through chapter 2 draft; enter edits to chapter 1
2. Finish reading RM book
3. Work on Zero Waste pamphlet; do my share of updates for the recycling pamphlet
4. Contact estate lawyer for mom (contact mom first); try to set up a meeting
5. Return some balloons (don't ask)
6. Take notes on the book I read recently
7. Preliminary research for my part of the festschrift proposal

JANEB

1. self-care: tick off at least 75% of the regular chores list, plan what to do with the decluttering woman, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed, keep my mobile phone on grey-scale mode.
2. fun: play D&D, knit some, draw something (nibling's birthday is soon so a card for that would be good), read something
3. teaching and administration: three blocks of teaching preparation from my list, ensure I have up to date information on all the students doing placement years
4. one step on other service task, Slowly Developing Paper meeting and two hours of follow up work, at least half an hour on Neglected Paper. I should probably add something else but I don't feel motivated to!

JULIE:

1. Lots of end-of-term meetings.
2. More dissertation meetings.
3. One day at least on grant application.
4. Review meeting for a PhD student
5. Register for a conference in July
6. Summer travel - book train tickets, travel insurance for daughter.
7. Do some decluttering.
8. Make a start on major bathroom project.

SUSAN

1. Write to presses
2. Start doing what I propose with Famous Author
3. Read two articles for journals and just get them DONE.
4. Enjoy social life.
5. Keep reading for fun

IN SUMMARY:

Your TLQuest prompt is: What is your character like as a companion on a walk like this (do they get distracted by butterflies, have a rigid sense of pace and schedule, sing or tell stories as they go)? How is your character feeling as they settle down, and what is their plan for tomorrow as you enter the woods? Who will be doing what? (searching for the herbs, looking our for threats, communing with any woodland creatures...)

Your real-world TLQ prompt is: weekly check in, plus how do you park your work at the end of a session so that you can put it out of your mind to enjoy summer things (or just be present in the rest of your life)?

2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 5

If you're busy this week/when reading this, the weekly goals and prompts are right at the bottom after the list of last week's goals, just skip the earlier stuff! 

It's grey and rainy here in the UK right now, and between politics and bureaucracy both national and university-specific, that feels pretty apt!  When necessary, tedious things, whether it's dentist appointments, house repairs, personal or professional administration, or a series of nights of bad sleep or bad allergies, are messing with your attempts to be in work mode, do you have any tricks or tips on how to make it happen anyway?  Last week I tried minimising, basically going in with the attitude I woke up with and seeing what happened, and it went quite well,  This week ended up being more of a "treat yo'self" week which started well but is not a long term solution (and given the packages of yarn and stationary that arrived this morning, and the list of items on this week's paypal accounting, CAN'T be a long term solution... it is the nibling's birthday soon, which is what started the shopping, but "one for rabbit, one for hare" syndrome kicked in hard and most of this stuff is for me!).

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY

Last week, our characters met Silas and he asked them to "go to Darkthorn Woods and fetch me some Singing Nettles, Feyflax and Perennewinkle".  They're all cynics and can see a plot hook coming a mile off, so wanted to spend some time investigating first (NOTE: in fullon D&D, some DMs won't let players have characters who don't "go along with" any plot hook or damsel in distress they encounter, others just ensure adventure comes along anyway, whether the characters follow the hints the DM sets out or not - I'm definitely the second kind!).  I did a little bit of interpretation to come up with what people did in a way that worked across all characters...

Alice, Linnet, Martha and the monk (who doesn't seem to have a name yet... there are online name generators if you'd like a starting point?  Or they might have a military nickname like "Shorty" or "Ears" or "Squirrel"?) wanted to learn more at the cottage, either by talking to Silas, looking at his garden, or trying to remember specific information.  So I decided that they would offer to help Silas out with a bit of garden work since he's been ill for a while, and see what they could learn.  After a bit of polite demurring, Silas will agree that a hand would be welcome, and say he can at least offer you a decent lunch as a neighbour brought a big game pie over the night before, which he's happy to share.  

Alice and the monk will talk to Silas as they work - the monk, wary after the encounter with Strangling Vine, will ask about the plants and their possible dangers, and Alice will ask a couple of very casual questions about any people who live in the Darkthorn Woods.  Those are both checks of their social skills, their ability to come across to Silas as helpful and trustworthy people who he can share information with, so they are CHARISMA checks.  I rolled a 13 for the monk and an 8 for Alice on a 20-sided dice (d20).

Silas will explain that Singing Nettles look very like nettles, but don't have a sting, that Feyflax is a dainty little white flower which grows in woodlands in the fey world as well as ours, and Perennewinkle has flowers which only open at night, and grows on the lower branches of trees in old woodlands.  He assures you that none of them will actively attack you, and offers some handy tips for dealing with Strangling Vine if you ever feel it sneaking around your ankles again.  He seems a bit more suspicious of Alice, but says that he's never had any problems with anyone who lives in the woods, and he can write them a letter saying they're there on his behalf to show people if she's really worried about that.

Silas will ask Linnet if she would mind going into the cottage and making some tea for everyone, he doesn't want to cough in it.  Linnet will go inside and take the opportunity whilst the water boils to take a good look around - this is an INVESTIGATION check.  As a druid and a gnome, Linnet is very observant - and I rolled an 18 for her without any additions for her inate skills!  Everything about the cottage matches what Silas has said - other than the workshop area, the main room is superficially a bit untidy, both because he's been ill and because neighbours have been in and out, but underneath it is is well organised.  The cottage has one main room, which is combination kitchen, eating area, sitting area and workshop with a wooden screen which can be pulled across to separate or hide the workshop area.  The furniture is old and mismatched but well cared for with bright cushions, and the working area carefully separated from the kitchen area, with its own pots and utensils stored neatly on shelves above a workbench scrubbed almost white.  Doors off lead to a small store room, where Linnet smells nothing suspicious, and a bedroom which is currently airing out with the window shutters thrown open, but cluttered with all the detritus of illness.  Linnet will take a careful look at the work area, where dried herbs and supplies, jars of made up mixtures labelled in angular, legible writing, boxes of packets and little pots of infusions and salves for common ailments ready for dispersing, and a well worn logbook currently open at a page where he appears to have been stock-taking those prepared remedies are all orderly, and Linnet will see nothing that arouses suspicion.  The prices jotted on the paper packets seem low, even by country standards, but everything she smells and sees seems to be professionally done.  Linnet will also be impressed by the range of teas and tisanes Silas keeps in his kitchen, and pick a refreshing, bright brew suitable for a brisk sunny morning.  His house seems well equipped for visitors, with a dozen sturdy pottery mugs and a pile of simple plates stored in easy reach.

Martha will be taking a good look around the garden, and racking her memory for herb-lore.  We'll call that a NATURE check - I also rolled an 8 for Martha.  She'll find that the plants are a bit unknempt, but no more than you'd expect if Silas had been ill as he says, and everything there including some rare plants has a legitimate apothecary use as far as she's aware.  All she can remember about Feyflax is that it is a plant which grows in both this world and the world of the Fey, and is only found in wooded places with limited interference from people.

Scout meanwhile went off to see Mistress Underwood and check her maps along the way.  Her maps have the most detail around the roads, but she will find Darkthorn Woods noted 1-2 days journey from the road, shown as the origin point for the River Thorn.  There aren't any specific "here be danger" notations, and it doesn't look like dangerous country - not the kind of place where you might find large groups of goblins or nastier creatures, although a few will turn up just about anywhere.  Talking to Mistress Underwood is another CHARISMA check, and I rolled a 5 for Scout.  Conveniently for Scout, though, it turns out that Mistress Underwood's tongue wags as fast as her needles.  In the process of measuring Scout's feet, discussing the merits of different types of heel and offering a double sole to improve the wear, she will explain that Silas is a local man who went to the city (she is vague about which city) to study and become an apothecary, who then took service with a mercenary troop to pay off the costs of his schooling, and lost his leg in a border skirmish with "a dark wizard.  Or maybe even a necromancer.  Or the king's war mages.  I don't quite remember the details, but it was all anyone talked like for months.  And even the best of healing magic and potions can't yet regrow a leg, at least not for an ordinary soldier.  So he settled back here, and he's been a real asset to the village.  A bit of a soft touch with the discounts for the feckless (she clearly does not fully approve of this), but he's a respectable person overall".  She'll also mention that he usually takes a couple of local youngsters as an escort and goes away to collect herbs for a few days in Spring and Autumn every year, "last year that Andia girl from Alderbank Farm went along and she's been a bit more polite since although given what her mother was like as a youngster..." Scout will leave with ringing ears and an order placed for a couple of pairs of good socks to be picked up in a couple of days.

Silas is clearly running out of energy, even just sitting on the bench, and he will accept Martha's suggestion that he should take a nap - he'll tell the cats and dog to keep an eye on things, point out to Linnett where to find the knife and the pie, and soon you'll hear regular snoring coming from the bedroom.

You've cut everyone a slice of pie and settled down to eat lunch - it's time to discuss what you want to do next.  Ask someone else (Andia at the farm, the tavern keeper, another local person)?  Decide to take on the task - or to reject the task?  Do a sneaky check of the cottage whilst Silas is asleep looking into drawers and cupboards?  Take the pie and the dog (who is currently staring at each of you in turn very earnestly in hopes of a little piece of pie) and get back on the road?

LAST WEEK'S GOALS

DAISY

Enjoy birthday on Monday
Submit revisions for Paper 2
Plan field work with students
Repot my office violets, they seem unhappy
Run three times
Real Summer 1: get fancy food truck lunch for birthday
Real Summer 2: pick up a few new local ciders to try on the deck

DEH

1. Write report on MS I'm reviewing for a press
2. 1.5 units Greek (finish last week's, plus all of another)
3. Actual writing progress on Alms
4. 2 x 2 hours garden
5. Take notes on another ILL book
6. Do something else worth reporting (ex. make an appointment, get a picture framed, tidy the linen closet)

HEU MIHI

1. Enjoy my birthday, my son’s birthday, my son’s graduation, my son’s piano recital, and my son’s birthday party (a busy week!). Consider buying myself some new sandals.
2. Write 15 hours
3. Review article
4. Score 3 papers for assessment thing
5. Prepare for meeting re. Festschrift (read abstracts, look at submission guidelines)
6. Start putting together zero waste pamphlet for town sustainability committee
7. Assess grad student’s progress and send email to committee about next semester, knowing that it will go against a colleague’s wishes; work on convincing colleague for one more semester’s grace

JANEB

1. self-care: enjoy the two days off, without pushing to be artificially productive, tick off at least 75% of the regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom (there may be a chair under there...), additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed.
2. fun: play D&D, knit some, draw something (Father's Day card maybe), read something
3. teaching and administration: one block of teaching preparation from my list
4. step two of service stuff (transferring names from one email tool to another), two hours on the Slowly Developing Paper preparing for a meeting the following week, an hour on Neglected Paper.

JULIE

1. Translate paper into French and have someone check it.
2. Powerpoint slides
3. Read and comment on two chapters for the friend who is hosting the workshop (probably on the train).
4. Pack for trip, organise things here for while I'm away.
5. Dissertation meetings tomorrow with students for next year.
6. Father's Day.

SUSAN

1. Finish re-reading Famous Author and make plan
2. Read one of two articles I need to review for journals
3. Respond to admin issues, get all memos in on time.
4. Have fun at the weekend

IN SUMMARY:

Your TLQuest prompt is: Given the information you've learnt, what do you want to do next?

Your real-world TLQ prompt is: weekly check in, plus when necessary, tedious things are messing with your attempts to be in work mode, do you have any tricks or tips on how to make the switch into that mode happen anyway? 

2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 4

If you're busy this week/when reading this, the weekly goals and prompts are right at the bottom after the list of last week's goals, just skip the earlier stuff!

Greetings!  It really does feel like nearly work-summer here - all marks had to be in earlier this week so those of us who are not out in the field are now knee-deep in students with questions/problems, ranging from the resigned one asking about resits already (August, child, August) to the confused one who forgot to ask for an extension on one assignment of three due the same week they were out having a minor operation, administrators asking for checks of modules (marks are passed from the VLE to the student information system (SIS) to code-laden spreadsheets in a nearly but not quite automated way, and since the ViLE and the SIS don't talk quite the same language, and human intervention is involved, there are many small opportunities for error so the spreadsheets come back to us for manual checking - but of course half our colleagues are in the field/on holiday/at conferences/away external examining for other universities already, so someone has to be found to do the task)... but the first examiners meeting is next week, and the university has announced an All Hands Financial Situation Is Dire meeting the week after, which are as much a sign of summer as swifts screaming overhead, and the traffic cones are out in swarms on local roads, also a good sign in the UK.  Which has me thinking about how to create little moments of True Summer, the ones that seemed so possible on the last day of school when we were children, acres of time and lashings of lemonade and real, deep freedom.  Because there isn't room for the big stuff, between summer goals, the creep of the rest of the job (the All Hands will be bad news the only unknown is how deep and how soon the cuts will be; resit creation and processing invades July and August, and ViLE set up/new software arrivals/preparing for Clearing start in August, and there are project student crises all summer...), and just Being A Grown Up.  What does True Summer look like for you, and how can you capture it?  I'll be making at least one batch of my Granny's Home Made Lemonade and finding a tree to drink some under whilst reading metaphysical poetry...

Our adventurers will be up bright and early in the morning to get information about their chosen quest this week.

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY:
Our characters have decided they want to be Skilled Assistants to Silan Fontana - even if Scout is only going along because she thinks the rest are too kind hearted and may find themselves aiding a poisoner, or poisoned by a poisoner, plus it's close to where Mistress Underwood is offering good socks (anyone who walks any distance knows the value of Good Socks, which was considerably greater when socks were all hand made by people - my Great Great (Great? I lose count) Grandmother actually paid rent in her old age in the form of half a dozen pairs of navy blue shooting stockings - thigh high socks for wearing inside boots when standing around in chilly dawns - hand made for the landowner who had respected her deceased husband and allowed her to stay in his tied cottage for her last years, with the socks as rent for mutual dignity, or so the family story has it).

In D&D, there are three "modes of game play" - social interactions, exploring (interactions with the physical environment) and combat (hostile interactions).  Different characters shine in different places!  Basic game play is the same in all cases - the DM describes the situation, players describe what their character wants to do, and the DM decides whether they can do that and whether there is a chance of it not succeeding, in which case a dice roll is made to see what happens.  For example, 

• the DM says "you come to a stone bridge crossing the river, with several small statues evenly spaced along the parapet on the up-stream side".  
• The elf ranger wants to carefully inspect the closest statue, the human fighter wants to take a quick look under the bridge arches in case of trolls, and the halfling bard wants to hurry along to the tavern.  
• The ranger would make a roll to determine how much information they collect from their inspection, the fighter would make a roll to determine how stealthily they moved to get under the bridge, and the bard would just set off across the bridge without a dice roll being needed.  
• Each in turn rolls, and the DM explains what happens as a consequence (perhaps the ranger realises that what they thought were statues are actually Leathery Winged Avians having a nap, the fighter slips and falls in the river making a loud splash (but seeing no trolls), and the bard is now half-way across the bridge singing a little tune, so the DM is about to roll for the LWAs to see if they wake up hungry...).

In the full game, the DM decides how hard the task is (how high the player has to roll to succeed, or to get different levels of information), and players keep track of all the properties of their characters (everyone has numerical scores for strength, intelligence etc., and skills in specific areas) and add or subtract those values from the dice rolls (e.g. a ranger will usually have a high wisdom score, the personal quality which determines how well a character can perceive and interpret their environment, so might be able to add 3 or 4 bonus points to their roll to inspect the statues.  But the fighter might be wearing plate mail, which is noisy, so would subtract one or two bonus points from their roll to be sneaky).  To keep this TLQ version simple, I'm going to adjust the difficulty level of a task for the character, based on their race and class, but the same idea will apply.  And hopefully that's the last of the long bits of explanations of mechanics needed! On to our first social encounter:

It's a fine morning, and the tavern bakes fresh bread every day, so our group are decently fed and in good moods as they set out to follow the directions they've been given to Silas Fortana's cottage.  The Innkeeper said Silas was a decent enough old boy and didn't charge locals more than they could pay for his remedies, but that he hasn't come in for a drink for the last week or so, and the notice had been pinned up by one of his neighbours.  The village seems to be reasonably prosperous, and no-one is surprised to see a group of travellers, although a couple of dogs follow along companionably for a while.  Silas lives in a small cottage a field or two away from the main village, close to the woods.  You spot his cottage immediately because it is surrounded by a riot of green, neatly divided into sections by gravelled paths.  As you get closer, those of you who know about plants will realise that the divisions reflect conditions - a full sun bed against a southerly wall, a shade bed, a bed with crushed lime scattered among the plants to make the soil more alkali.  The whole garden is neatly fenced, and a wider fenced path leads to the cottage door.

It will take a while for someone to come to the door - you will hear barking, small noises inside, someone telling a "fool dog" to calm down.  Eventually it opens, and you see an elderly human man leaning on a crutch and holding a large handkerchief in his other hand.  He's wearing simple clothes that are made of good fabric but have clearly seen a lot of gardening action, he is missing his left leg below the knee, and he is having a good old fashioned coughing fit.  Once he gets his breath back, he encourages you to take a seat on a pair of benches outside the door, because he needs some fresh air himself, and because the cottage will be right frowsty as he's been mostly in bed the last eight days.  Between bouts of wheezing and coughing, he tells you about his situation.  "You must think I'm not up to much, an apothecary who can't cure his own cough overnight.  But an ordinary apothecary like me can't stop a human from aging, and if the children are sharing around a cold, well, the whole village gets it.  My lungs aren't what they were before, and anything like that goes to them and settles in for a while, whatever I do.  I've been waiting for the weather to get settled before arranging a trip to Darkthorn Woods, it's quite an undertaking for an old codger like me, although there's usually a couple of local youngsters willing to have a bit of an adventure and a break from shovelling muck or pulling weeds, I wouldn't go there alone.  But now this... and I'm out or nearly out of several of my summer cures which require those herbs.  I need a few weeks to get some of them properly prepared and matured, and now the weather is decent, people will be wandering into the woods or marshes or trysting in hedgerows, get over-confident in their foraging, roll in the wrong kind of grass, sit on ant-hills, get bitten by the wrong kind of bug, or the children will be playing further away from the village and picking pretty green leaves or daring each other to poke sticks into holes to disturb beasts.  People will people, and I hate not being able to help them get over the consequences of outdoor peopling.  I can pay well and tell you where to go and all that, and I know those plants so well I can be sure to identify them even if they are a bit dried out by the time they get back here, you needn't worry you'll poison anyone by collecting the wrong thing - or get away with defrauding this old man, although you don't seem the types.  So are some of you people willing to go to Darkthorn Woods and fetch me some Singing Nettles, Feyflax and Perennewinkle?"  By this point the dog, an elderly three-legged particoloured mixed breed sort of animal, has decided you are all wonderful and is going around demanding petting, and you are aware of being intently observed by two cats, one on a windowsill and one in the thatch.

So, are there any actions your characters want to take?  Things you could do might include wanting to do an insight check (do your instincts and people-savvy tell you he's being completely honest?), check your own memory to see if you know anything about that place or those herbs, make an excuse to look around his house or garden, ask his cats... or you might want to do something specific to prepare for a journey away from the road, or to ask more questions.

LAST WEEK'S GOALS:

    DAISY

1. Submit revisions for Paper 1
2. Submit revisions for Paper 2
3. Big association meeting and attached reports
4. Edits on local paper for colleague
5. Read and comment on student proposals and thesis chapters

    DEH

1. finish reading MS I'm reviewing for a press
2. one unit Greek
3. progress on Alms
4. 2 x 2 hours garden
5. notes on at least one ILL book
6. something else worth reporting

    HEU MIHI

1. Write (/read for book) 15 hours
2. Finish reading review book
3. Send two big emails to grad students
4. Read dissertation chapter
5. Review article

    JANEB

1. self-care: tick off at least 75% of the regular chores list, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least three days (did everything instructed on Saturday, and today I'm regretting it), practicing rest as needed. The decluttering woman is coming on Friday so I will need to be on the ball for that despite working Monday to Thursday...
2. fun: play some kind of ttrpg (may not be D&D this week), knit some, draw something, read something
3. teaching and administration: last-last minute marking (marks are due in Monday, BUT a colleague has an "extension" and may need help, three blocks of teaching preparation from my list
4. meeting about service stuff in my field now I'm "back". Improve research session goal. referee report on an article. at least an hour on the Slowly Developing Paper

    JULIE

1. Presentation for workshop next week.
2. Decluttering - take books from study to charity shop.
3. FIL's birthday.

    SUSAN

1. Finish settling in, doing house stuff.
2. Re-read Famous Author, set plan.
3. Do something fun this weekend, to remind myself that, “I’m not in Kansas anymore.”

IN SUMMARY:

Your TLQuest prompt is: having heard what Silas Fontana had to say, what does your character want to do now?

Your real-world TLQ prompt is: What does True Summer look like for you, and what can you do to make sure little moments of it happen this year?  Plus of course goals check ins! 

2-24 Session 2: TLQuest week 3

Greetings, everyone - it's now officially meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere so naturally where I am in the UK today it is overcast with occasional spitting rain and I'm wearing a cardigan with a big scarf whilst sitting at the computer!  I hope you're all having equally seasonal weather...  This week our adventurers gather in a tavern where they'll meet each other and decide which quest they want to do, which led me to thinking about how we make decisions about what to work on.  I very much struggle with this - there are so many possibilities, but it's also so hard to plan effectively between the fickleness of grant awards, the huge variability in speed of responses to submitted papers, and being in a collaborative subject where colleagues are on different schedules and it seems ALL of us dealing with some sort of job or life complications!  Any tips or stories to share?

If you're busy this week/when reading this, the weekly goals and prompts are right at the bottom after the list of last week's goals, just skip the earlier stuff!

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY:

It's a D&D cliche that adventures start with everyone getting together in a tavern - but it's a cliche for a sound narrative reason, and we're starting there too.  This tavern is located at the edge of a fairly well-travelled road which connects the large town of Elinard with the city of Caisterhythe.  Elinard sits in the foothills of the Boarcrest Mountains, and hosts markets and interchanges which bring together the different races - dwarves bring iron work and gems from the roots of the mountains, halfling villages occupy folds of land in the foothills and cheerful families bring the sweetest cream and most satisfying taffy-like candies to market, quiet gnomes from hidden communities high on the forested slopes bring beautifully decorated wooden items from treasure boxes to honey dippers and abacuses along with berries, mushrooms and resinous bark, and elves pass through with a wealth of songs, jewelery, blended forest tisanes and lacy, crisp nut and honey wafers which are all the craze among rich city humans.  There is even rumoured to be an elven city somewhere in the gorges along the fast-running River Elin, although on-one local can tell you where to look.  Caisterhythe, about ten day's travel away from Elinard, is a human dominated walled city which is crowded within and sprawling beyond the walls of a much older fort.  Located where the Elin joins the Northbranch River to form a waterway barges can use, and at the confluence of several trade roads, it's a busy, bustling place with a substantial temple complex, well known Wizard's college, and plenty of accommodations for travellers going to and from the royal city of Aliard, the sea coast, the West March where a constant low-scale war of raid and counter-raid has been going on for generations between the civilised lands and the creatures of the haunted Black Moor, blighted result of a past magical cataclysm, or starting the long trek to the southern steppe and desert lands whence yearly caravans bring spices, magical ingredients and the strangest stories.  

The tavern itself is quite an ordinary sort of place, on the edge of a small farming settlement, itself conveniently near the road.  The road is safe enough at this point for a solo traveller if they are sensible about where they stay at night and can protect themselves, and the lands it travels through are by local standards peaceful, which doesn't mean entirely safe; there are outlaws, there are creatures in the woods and marshes which can be hungry or dangerous to the unwary, and small settlements and roving bands of peoples outside the compact of races who prefer to help themselves to what they want.  This tavern is a typical stopping point where a traveller can get a safe place to sleep for a reasonable price, access good well water, and buy ale, a cooked meal, or basic travel food, and outside of travelling season it is still regularly host to a few locals and gets market day trade from the outlying farms and settlements.  The large common room is generally friendly and social, although there's an unspoken "locals to left, travellers to the right, news exchange at the bar" geography to the place.  At the bar, there is a notice board (literacy is not universal, but it's normal for most of the longer-lived races and so more common among humans than in our world's middle ages in a "keeping up with the pointy-eared types" way, or the barman will helpfully write a sign or read the board for an illiterate visitor) which used by locals and travellers alike.

Your characters have all decided to break their journey at the tavern, and find themselves sharing the common table on the travellers side of the bar for their evening meal or drink.  They will agree to group together to take on one of the jobs offered by the notice board.  So this week's game play is a bit of role playing and some decision making - what do the others see when they look at your character, what sort of impression do they get, what sort of information is shared?  Your character might be friendly but not say much of substance, cheerfully tell everyone their life story (or the public version thereof), start the story telling, or focus on practical information about the road ahead.  They might be the kind to try every option on the menu and ask for the local beer, or carefully stick to bread and cheese.  They might be spending the coin to have a small room to themselves and buying drinks for everyone, sleeping in the common attic where everyone gets a decent bed pallet and a lockable chest for their gear and sharing the standard meal (bread, soft cheese, generous portions of a stew which has enough meat in it to flavour the vegetables well, stored apples and a honeycake, served with herbal tea or local ale), or using the clean straw in the stall in the barn the owner has set aside for the poorest travellers (both for charity and because they don't want rough sleepers attracting any nuisance creatures) and nursing a single cup of ale.  As for the decision, the noticeboard is currently offering three jobs/requests from help for travellets.  Which one most appeals to your character?  We'll treat the comments as a straw poll, so if you could rank the jobs 1 (preferred) to 3 (least interested) for your character that would be helpful.

NOTICE BOARD - in case the fonts aren't legible, the three "Work for Pay" items are: 1) "Skilled assistance required. Good prices paid for Specific Herbs currently on Short Sipply in the region needed by Apothecary. Silas Fontanis - ask at bar for directions".  2) "Weird stuff happening to sheep - can you help work out what is going on?  Payment (in goods only). Stubbings Farm" and 3) "CAUTION travellers on North Bluff road - third goblin attack last week.  Travel in groups, take care.  Villages of Redgrove and Upper Bluff offer reward of 50 gold to anyone who can find and remove goblin camp"

Did I say fewer words from me?? Oh well...

LAST WEEK'S GOALS:

 DAISY
• Complete my part of Paper 1 revision to hand over to colleagues
• Do modelling for Paper 2 revision
• Plan out first weeks of field work for visiting student
• Do conference finance mop-up
• Clean out garden beds, plant seedlings, and hope they survive
• Fun with friend

DAME ELEANOR HULL
• keep "office hours" 3-4 days
• make progress on Alms
• 1 unit Greek review
• 2 x 2 hours in the garden
• look at spreadsheet of choices for book group
• enjoy various celebratory and social activities

HEU MIHI
• Write 10 hours
• Make a second book
• ASSIGN TASHIPS
• Read 1/2 of review book

JANEB
• self-care: tick off at least 75% of the regular chores list, additional intentional movement three days, eye specialist appointment, resting as needed
• fun: play D&D, knit some, and finish the novel I'm currently reading.
• teaching and administration: any last minute marking, two blocks of teaching preparation from my list.
• send a couple of emails starting to pick up with different service stuff in my field now I'm "back". Improve research session goal. referee report on an article. Attend an online seminar.

JULIE
• Read PhD chapters for two students.
• Start thinking about presentation for workshop next month.
• Moderate exam scripts.
• Prep for two meetings (one is an academic misconduct panel, so will not be fun, chairing the other)
• Send sympathy cards to uncle and cousin (an aunt died this weekend).
• Present and card for my MIL's birthday.
• Exercise
• Eat healthily
• Do some gardening stuff if weather improves
• Read book for book club.

SUSAN
We would all like an update on the health of Ginger George please!
    RESEARCH:
• Finish re-reading Famous author to figure out direction
• Make sure I have everything for the summer, for Famous Author and for Rest of Life Project
    ADMIN
• Do 2 hour required course on people behaving badly (we have to do 2 hours every 2 years. This is my last one.)
• Touch base with deans, colleagues, etc.
• Keep up with changing TA assignments
    LIFE:
• Finish packing
• Try to plan mini-breaks over the summer; so far it's quite sociable, with several people coming to visit, but my planned hike fell through, and I need to plan my trip, in addition to a short trip with a friend and another short one with my sister.

In summary

your TLQuest prompt is: what do the rest of the group see/hear of your character in the tavern?  Which job most interests them from the noticeboard?

your real world TLQ prompt is: how do you make decisions about which TLQ tasks make it onto the action list and which don't; how do you plan research in an ever-changing world?  Plus of course how did you get on last week and what are your plans for the coming week?